Every once in a while, a story comes along that feels less like a book and more like a collective exhale. Andy Weir’s 2021 hard sci-fi novel Project Hail Mary is exactly that kind of story — a bright, buoyant reminder that even in the cold vacuum of space, connection can spark in the most unexpected ways. And honestly, in a world that’s been feeling more and more like a nightmare unable to wake up from, this tale of a solitary astronaut and his utterly endearing alien friend feels like medicine. A quiet rebellion of wholesomeness in a cynical age.

Adapted into a really great script by screenwriter Drew Goddard and turned into this year’s first major blockbuster by directing duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the film stars Ryan Gosling as a former schoolteacher turned reluctant astronaut who wakes up alone on a spaceship with zero memory, a mission to save Earth from solar dimming, and the creeping realization that he’s probably not coming home.

Even though that sounds like a pretty bleak premise, there’s something deeply comforting about this film. It’s funny, emotional and exciting, but most of all it’s therapeutic in the best way possible, and I’d like to think that its score by Daniel Pemberton plays no small part in that.

It’s really quite rare for me to come across new film music and immediately, even on the first listen, begin to fall in love with it. And that’s without having seen a single second of the film. Pemberton’s work here is pure musical bliss from start to finish and — in a year that holds promise for many more exciting new scores — is already a strong contender for next year’s Academy Awards (not that this award means much, but still!).

PHMY really has it all! The entire soundtrack is brimming with life, perfectly complemented by an overly colourful album art. Pemberton seems to effortlessly blend the epic scope of the story with the quiet, personal connection between the two main characters into a cohesive whole. He does this with subdued melodic motives, which at times almost seem too fragile as if they were fleeting in the vacuum of space (“Ryland Grace, Cognition Assessment“, “Grace Go Home“). Or with various hypnotic rhythms that dominate with quirky electronics and otherworldly sounds (“The Message“, “Life is Reason“). These tracks bounce, rattle and trip away, it’s a sheer delight!

Above all, however, he does it through a number of absolutely beautiful themes that strike a perfect balance at both ends of the emotion scale – ranging from deeply moving to rousing and uplifting (“Tau Amoeba“, “Goodbye My Friend“, “Believe in the Hail Mary“). In his thematic approach, he makes extensive use of choral or even sacral voices from both choirs and soloists, which roots the score in profoundly human territory.

The album’s stand-out track is probably “Time Go Fishing” with its brilliant build-up and resolution. My personal favourites though are a pair of tracks towards the end which, given their catchiness and flawless production, could just as easily have been released as radio singles. “Amaze Amaze Amaze (Fist My Bump)” and “Amaze Amaze Amaze (Life on Erid)” sum up everything that has been laid out before on a lengthy but never tedious album. I enjoy them so much that I designed a special custom cover for an imaginary 7-inch vinyl single (#11).

And if all of that wasn’t enough already, the album also features an eclectic, multi-cultural selection of songs that really emphasizes the global nature of this space mission! I mean, woah! waitaminute…. a whole bunch of different nations teaming up, can you imagine that!?

A film as visually stunning as this one deserves an equally vibrant and lively marketing campaign, and fortunately, the renowned creative agency Empire Design delivers on all fronts. Their posters have a vivid and vibrant quality and capture the void of space with a touch of cosmic wonder and a dynamic, almost kinetic energy. I very much enjoyed working with such beautiful source images, some of which came in a staggering resolution of 5000 pixels.

But one poster in particular stands out from the crowd, and of course I’m talking about the La La Land-inspired one-sheet, which actually comes from an official source(!). The production team went to great lengths to accurately recreate this legendary scene from Damien Chazelle’s 2016 smash hit, as we can see in a charming Instagram post by Eva Mendes, Ryan Gosling’s wife and apparently his social media manager :) The “La La Hand” she mentioned was reportedly one of his biggest career regrets, so it’s no surprise that he jumped at this chance to make amends. It’s all just too brilliant! Just take a look at Rocky’s “jazz hands”! I love everything about it and obviously, I took this chance to recreate the original La La Land soundtrack cover with religious exactitude.

Project Hail Mary, it seems, is like that desperately needed hug amidst all these dystopian gut-punches or grimdark manifestos we’re spiraling into.

This latest installment in the “Andy Weir Symphonic Universe” not only gifts us another brilliant score following Harry Gregson-Williams’s already highly acclaimed The Martian. No, it also reminds us that friendship can bloom even in the most unlikely spaces, that two wildly different beings can join forces across cosmic gulfs, and that maybe — just maybe — humanity isn’t doomed, if only we remember how to be kind, curious, and a little bit ridiculous together.